Although all the
copyright to The Spirit belongs to Will Eisner, that was
not always the case...

As Eisner reveals in
his interview with Tom Heintjes for The Spirit - The
Origin Years #3:

"... I agreed
let (Everett) Arnold copyright it in his name
rather than mine, but with the stipulation my ownership
was acknowledged in the contract, and that at any time
the partnership terminated, all rights to The Spirit
would revert to me."

Everett
"Busy" Arnold was the publisher of Quality
Comics, hence the reprints of Spirit sections in Police
Comics. When The Spirit series came to an end in
1952, Arnold sold the rights to Eisner for the token sum
of $1000.

Arnold's main concern
for owning the copyright was due to the fact that World
War II was looming: Arnold feared that if Eisner had the
copyright if he were drafted and perhaps even killed
whilst the series took off the publisher would be forced
to cancel the series! However, Arnold also took the
precaution of having another, very similar character
created which he firmly retained the copyright to, Midnight.

All images used on the
pages are for the purposes of review only, and are in no
way intended to infringe upon the owner's copyright.